DARIO Gradi insisted Alex fans must take the positives from Saturday’s bore draw with Millwall.

A game of little quality and even less goalmouth action ended with many frustrated home supporters voicing their displeasure.

While the Alex can be pleased with a second clean sheet of the season, the draw with Millwall – which represented the Londoners’ first point in five games – can only be regarded as a failure.

But while the technical director was disappointed with the Railwaymen’s attacking play, he was pleased with their defensive efforts.

Gradi said: ‘I thought the supporters were fair. They were as frustrated as we were. They didn’t boo the team during the game. The team gave their best. There is more to come but you can only ask them to try as hard as possible.

‘It was an honest performance. Give credit to our defence. We had George Abbey as a makeshift centre half and he did well. We defended their set plays very well as they had a considerable height advantage. A draw is not a disaster.’

Captain Neil Cox and Eugene Bopp, who were subbed after 45 minutes at Doncaster, were left out of the side.

Ben Rix and Byron Moore, fresh from signing a new three-year deal, replaced them in a new-look midfield.

As expected, Abbey made his full debut in the heart of defence alongside Chris McCready, who was skipper for the day. Lee Barnard was fit to start despite missing Friday’s training with a sickness bug.

The visitors included new loan signing Will Hoskins in their front line, while Arsenal loan whizz-kid Jay Simpson operated on the right of midfield.

Millwall started brightly. Hoskins hit the side netting from a good position inside two minutes, while former Alex man Dave Brammer screwed wide from 20 yards.

Billy Jones made a super last- ditch tackle to deny Simpson in the penalty area, before Gary Alexander knocked a long cross down and Paul Robinson curled just wide.

On the quarter-hour mark, a vicious Ryan Lowe free kick deflected goalwards off Gary Alexander and keeper Rab Douglas had to react swiftly to save at the foot of his post.

And Ben Williams matched his opposite number with an equally good save to deny Alexander from a similar distance, five minutes later.

Slowly, the home side began to take heed of the screams from the Alex dugout to pass the ball along on the floor. Led by Rix, they began to take a more controlled approach to the game.

And while they remained the second best side on the pitch, they were at least in the game.

Neat work from Rix and Roberts teed up Lowe for a left-foot curler just before the break, and Alexander headed over from six yards after good work from Hoskins in the 45th minute.

Early in the second half Moore cleverly let a Jones throw-in run across his body, before swivelling and hitting a volley which Douglas dived to stop.

While the first half was a fairly cagey affair, the second was wide open. With confidence and conviction at a premium, neither side had much shape or the ability to punish the other’s mistakes.

Lions boss Willie Donachie swapped Simpson and Hoskins for Ben May and Ryan Smith, while Moore and Lowe exchanged positions for the hosts.

Smith immediately forced a save from Williams, Abbey dived to deflect a Brammer drive wide, and O’Hara found the train track with his effort on 79 minutes.

The ineffective Lowe was replaced by Bopp, and the Ukrainian soon helped set up a chance for Moore eight yards out. But the teenager miskicked at the vital moment. Barnard blazed over with eight minutes left.

Danny Woodards nearly lit up a dour occasion in the final minute when his super 25-yard half-volley thundered towards the top corner. But Douglas stretched to deny the Alex a victory they would not have deserved.